Who feels a sense of nostalgia after watching a movie that recounts the horrific scandal of Roman Catholic priests sexually preying on young boys and girls, with the Church hierarchy acting as facilitator?

Me, apparently. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of longing for journalism’s lost era when I left the cinema showing Spotlight, the fantastic new film about the The Boston Globe investigation that unearthed the details of how the Catholic archdiocese in Boston condoned the predatory criminal practices of its priests, moving them around between parishes when they got caught.

The brilliance of the film lies not in its depiction of the creepy actions of the priests themselves, who used the guise of religion to take advantage of vulnerable children. It’s in how it depicts the work of the investigative journalists who broke the story, ultimately forcing the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law.

These reporters aren’t presented as ink-stained heroes, in the way that All the President’s Men described Woodward and Bernstein. They’re simply dogged reporters who slog through court records and get plenty of doors slammed in their faces as they do their jobs. As for The Globe, the film shows how it dropped the ball over the years by not daring to challenge the might of the Church in a city with an influential Catholic community. But when a new top editor turns up at the paper, he has both the gumption and the resources to get the story told — assigning four reporters to work on nothing else for eight months.

And that’s what struck me about the film — that it depicts a print media environment that has pretty much disappeared. In the 15 years since that award-winning investigation, newspapers have shriveled and are now clearly on their deathbeds — including The Boston Globe, dumped by The New York Times for a song. And while online sources of news are more accessible than ever, the quality of what we’re getting and where we’re getting it from are increasingly in doubt.

Aside from prestige publications like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, newspapers still can’t figure out how to get readers to pay for news.

The signs of the collapse of traditional journalism are all around us:

Last month, The Globe and Mail agreed to pay printing firm Transcontinental Inc. $31-million as compensation for reduced revenue from the Toronto paper — basically paying for the privilege of printing fewer copies of the paper.

Postmedia, that guild of vampires masquerading as a newspaper chain, recently announced that its top executives took in bonuses of $1 million in 2015 — as the company announced its fifth consecutive annual loss and its shares dropped to 15 cents from over $15 four years ago, while Standard & Poor’s dropped its debt rating to triple C-plus. Talk about pay for performance!

Promising to get more blood from the papers before they go into rigor mortis, Postmedia’s chief executive, Paul Godfrey, recently told analysts, “We cannot take our foot off the gas with respect to cost savings,” as he accelerated into the concrete wall just ahead.

The Halifax Chronicle-Herald, apparently the largest remaining independent newspaper in the country, wants a new contract with its employees. Among its demands are a staff reduction of 30 per cent and no more overtime for employees until they work 48 hours a week.

Then there was the decision by La Presse, the country’s biggest French-language daily, to stop printing the newspaper on weekdays effective Jan 1. It’s been presented as an investment in the future, with readers now expected to migrate to La Presse’s tablet-based edition — in which the paper’s owner, Power Corp. of Canada, has invested $40-million.

At least Power Corp. is putting resources back into the business — unlike Postmedia. Still, the journalistic message from La Presse is mixed. The newspaper eliminated 158 jobs in the transition away from print, including 43 in the newsroom — so there will be less reporting, fewer investigations. La Presse Plus, the tablet edition, is attractive but sometimes appears to be light on content. And the tens of thousands of older readers who depended on the print edition have been basically dumped on a snowbank.

What’s most important about the tablet is that it’s free, paid for by advertising. La Presse has determined that the public doesn’t want to pay for news. Judging from the poor performance of paywalls at other newspapers, it may be right.

Aside from prestige publications like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, newspapers still can’t figure out how to get readers to pay for news. The problem began with the onset of the Internet, when media organizations essentially gave away their product for free. Once people get used to getting something for nothing, it’s tough to convince them to start paying for it. That’s why slapping a toll on an old bridge or highway is virtually impossible.

It’s true that there are alternative sources of journalism that have emerged from the new digital age — like iPolitics.ca — put forward by entrepreneurs attempting to figure out how to turn great ideas into workable businesses. But some of these ventures remain fragile affairs — particularly when most digital advertising still flows to the likes of Google and Facebook rather than serious journalism, and readers remain reluctant to pay.

Back at The Boston Globe, I wish I could say that the success of Spotlight was leaving a warm aura. But the newspaper entered 2016 in crisis. It decided to change its distribution system — presumably to save money — and the new delivery company left thousands of subscribers marooned without their papers.

Anxious to help out, scores of Globe employees — including reporters — decided to pitch in, bundling up papers and delivering them to grateful readers around the city. One of them was Sacha Pfeiffer, a member of the investigative team featured in Spotlight — picking up some new job skills as a delivery person.

Alan Freeman is a Senior Fellow at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. He came to the U of O from the Department of Finance, where he served as assistant deputy minister of consultations and communications. Alan joined the public service in 2008 after a distinguished career in journalism as a parliamentary reporter and business journalist for The Canadian Press, The Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail. At the Globe, he spent more than 10 years as a foreign correspondent based in Berlin, London and Washington.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.